. The A B C of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee. DRONES. 71 I>1U)NKS. The egg, like those producing woikeis, re-1 mains brooded over liy the bees until it is about 3 days old. and then by one ot nature's wonderful transformations the egg is gone, and a tiny worm appears, a mere speek in the bottom of the cell. This worm is fed as be- fore, until it is about a week old, and is then sealed over like a worker, except that the caps to tlie cells are raised considerably more; in fact, they very much resemble a lot of bullets laid closely together
. The A B C of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee. DRONES. 71 I>1U)NKS. The egg, like those producing woikeis, re-1 mains brooded over liy the bees until it is about 3 days old. and then by one ot nature's wonderful transformations the egg is gone, and a tiny worm appears, a mere speek in the bottom of the cell. This worm is fed as be- fore, until it is about a week old, and is then sealed over like a worker, except that the caps to tlie cells are raised considerably more; in fact, they very much resemble a lot of bullets laid closely together on a board. They will begin to cut the caps of these cells in about 24 or i3 days; the caps come off in a round piece, very much like those from a queen DRONE-BEE. The body of a drone is hardly as long as that of a queen, but he is so much tliicker through than either queen or worker, tliat you will never mistake him for either. He lias no baskets on his legs in wliieh to carry pollen, and his tongue is so unsuited to the gathering of honey from (lowers, that he would starve to death in tlie midst of a clo- ver field. I presume the young drones are ready to leave their hive iifter tliey are about two weeks old, and they do this shortly after noon, of a warm pleasant day. They come out with the young bees as they play, and lirst try their wings, but tlieir motions are far from being graceful and easy, and they frequently tumble about so awkwardly that, as they strike against your face, yon might almost think them either dnmk or crazy. I do not know how we can very well decide how old a drone must be to fulfill the sole purpose of his existence, the fertil- ization of the (pieeu, but should guess any- where from three weeks to as many months.** Perliai)s they sehlom live so long as the last period named, but I think they sometimes do. Many facts .seem to indicate that they, as well as the cpieen, fiy long distances from the hive—perhaps two miles or more. We now s
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrootaiam, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1891
